Kate Elliott's Blog, page 9

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Published on August 05, 2015 11:37

San Diego Comic Con Schedule

I will be attending SDCC for the first time this year.

Thursday: Epic Fantasy panel with Susan Dennard, Marie Rutkoski, Ray Feist, Peter Orullian, Jenna Rhodes, and me.

1:30 – 2:30 pm Room 24 ABC

FOLLOWED BY a signing at Autograph Area Table 9

3:00 – 4:00 pm

ARCs of COURT OF FIVES will be available at this signing. (the Spiritwalker series will be available for sale)

On Friday 11 am I will be signing at the Orbit Books booth #1116.

50 free copies of Cold Magic will be available as well as Cold Fire and Cold Steel for sale.

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.

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Published on July 06, 2015 12:47

How Do I Love Sirens? Let Me Count Five Ways

Rae Carson, Yoon Ha Lee, and I are joint Guests of Honor at Sirens Conference this year, October 8 – 11, in south Denver, Colorado.

I first attended Sirens in 2012 when Nalo Hopkinson and Malinda Lo were Guests of Honor. A number of writers I know had been singing the conference’s praises and I wanted a chance to try out (to quote from Sirens’ own description) “a conference about women in fantasy literature” that is meant to be “part scholarly conference, part enthusiastic convention, part networking weekend, and part personal retreat.”

That is what I got. Malinda and Nalo gave thoughtful, powerful speeches, and read from their works in progress. Panels covered a range of subjects; there were also papers, workshops, and roundtables for discussion of various topics, and besides that free time for hanging out and eating and drinking.

Here are five things I love about Sirens.

1. The conference brings together readers, authors, publishing professionals, scholars, educators, and librarians, each with their unique perspectives and their specific questions and views of fantasy literature. People talk to each other, a lot, and discussion is built into the way the programming is set up. Given that everyone at Sirens loves reading, I felt we were all on the same page (no pun intended). Furthermore, for someone like me it is a great place to talk to librarians about what they’re seeing in their profession these days, as well as to pick the brains of agents and publishing professionals for their insights in the field, scholars about their work, and other readers to gush about or criticize favorite stories.

How provocative is the discussion? At a roundtable at Sirens 2013 led by librarian Joy Kim on Women and Politics in Fantasy, the other participants had such strong feelings about certain things they wanted to see women doing in fantasy fiction that the discussion made me re-think one of the plots in my forthcoming novel, Black Wolves.

2. Sirens is small (I believe in the 100 – 150 range?) and thus not at all overwhelming for people who might find a large convention daunting. This also means that every attendee is encouraged to participate. [Note: This is a conference for ages 18 and over.]

3. It’s low-key and welcoming, or at least I found it to be that way. Being able to hang out with people in a leisurely, easy-going atmosphere is one of the great benefits. I have felt very at ease at both Sirens Conferences (I also attended in 2013) in a way I have never felt at sff conventions (even the ones I really enjoy). I love talking about books, publishing, media, the now and the future, and all without the slightly on-edge jockeying that I sometimes feel goes on at larger conventions. Will it be for everyone? Of course not; I can only speak to my own experience.

On a personal level I must mention that when I attended in 2013, I chose to do so (having already made reservations months earlier) even though my father had just died (from a brutal cancer) a mere ten days before. I needed a space away from the aftermath. To say I was shellshocked would be an understatement, but everyone at Sirens was kind and understanding; they included me when I could engage and let me sit quietly when I needed that. The organizing committee had all signed a condolence card for me; I was so deeply touched.

I can’t claim that any public gathering is a fully safe space (I’m not convinced those places yet exist in the world) but it was as safe a conference as I’ve attended, and I’m so appreciative of that.

4. Okay, let me be honest. I love books by and about men, but it does seem that in terms of visibility and discussion at conventions these books and authors get the lion’s share of the attention, and so it is a pleasure to be at a convention with a specific focus on women.

Here’s what Sirens itself has to say:

Why is the focus women in fantasy literature?

Our conference team believes strongly that women’s place in fantasy literature—as readers, as authors, as professionals, even as characters—is a vital, vibrant topic for discussion and debate. Some of our favorite books are fantasy works by women authors and some of our favorite people are women who write fantasy—and we hope you feel the same!

5. This year (2015) Sirens Studio debuts:

a two-day event featuring workshop intensives, discussion and networking opportunities, and flexible time for attendees to use however they wish.

Okay, so how cool is this pre-conference workshop? It is so cool that I wish I could attend all six sessions, especially the one by Faye Bi about reading inclusive and intersectional feminism in fantasy literature that is being held at the same time as the workshop I’m giving on “Writing Past Defaults.”

Yes! I’m giving a two hour workshop (I hope I can keep this to two hours):

We all carry societal baggage about gender roles into our writing. That’s inevitable. In this workshop intensive, Kate will analyze how authors (including herself!) who are consciously attempting to expand and center roles for women may unconsciously undermine their female characters by sliding sideways into stereotyped personalities or behaviors and work. Often, male characters act within the plot while women characters—even as the central figures—may be given reactive roles. We’ll discuss typical fantasy gender defaults, ways in which authors who may seem to be subverting them aren’t always, and how to turn around these insidious messages to more fully write women characters as they really are, and have been, in the world.

Other Sirens Studio workshops include A Short Fiction Writing Intensive on Characterization and World-Building with Yoon Ha Lee and Shveta Thakrar, A Reading Intensive (companion to my workshop) with Amy Tenbrink on reconstructing unconscious authorial bias, and two fantastic professional workshops: Miram Weinberg on A Woman’s Guide to Navigating the Highs and Lows of the Modern Workplace, and Sruta Vootukuru on Innovation, Diversity, and Feminism in the Television Industry.

That is all besides the programing scheduled for the conference itself. The theme this year is Rebels and Revolutionaries.

If you are interested and can, I encourage you to attend. I’ll be there!

P.S. Not everyone can easily afford this conference. I’m sorry I didn’t post this sooner as a few scholarships are available every year (but those have been given out already). Con or Bust may have a membership available (check with them) for PoC attendees.

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.

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Published on July 06, 2015 12:30

COURT OF FIVES giveaway

It’s that time. The long wait has been whittled down to a mere 4 months (okay, that still seems like a long time to me, but less than 12 months, all right?)

SO: I am giving away TWO COPIES of the ARC for COURT OF FIVES (publication date 18 August 2015). (ETA TWO copies)

Little, Brown Books for Young Reader says: “In this imaginative escape into an enthralling new world, World Fantasy Award finalist Kate Elliott’s first young adult novel weaves an epic story of a girl struggling to do what she loves in a society suffocated by rules of class and privilege.”

I say: This book was inspired by Little Women, Sasuke/American Ninja Warrior, the Count of Monte Cristo, and Greco-Roman Egypt, and is also my love letter to girls who play sports.

But don’t take my word for it:

“Kate Elliott’s magic and mastery is better than ever. Court of Fives enchanted me from start to finish, with characters and worlds that lingered long after I turned the final page.” —Marie Lu, New York Times bestselling author of the Legend series and the Young Elites series

“Haunting. Epic. Impassioned. Layered. Breathtaking. This isn’t just a novel; it is a coup d’état of the soul. Prepare to be ravished by Kate Elliott’s Court of Fives.”—Ann Aguirre, New York Times bestselling author of the Razorland trilogy

“Fast-paced, tense, and riveting. I couldn’t put it down, and you won’t be able to either!”—Tamora Pierce, author of the Tortall series and the Circle of Magic series

“This book is amazing. Kate Elliott combines everything I love best in a YA novel. Jes is a killer protagonist, tough and capable, but also lost in her upbringing and faced with impossible choices that test her character and her beliefs…. This book will not fail you.”—Gail Carriger, New York Times bestselling author of the Parasol Protectorate series and the Finishing School series

To ENTER:

1. Tell me (in comments) why I should pick you to read it! Your answer can be short, long, funny, serious, both, neither, can include a gif or be a gif or art or music or merely text. “I’m so looking forward to it!” is just as acceptable as a 1000 word discussion of whether Cat Barahal prefers pie or cake. I’m drawing the winner randomly regardless. I just need to make you work for it.

2. Domestic USA and International entries welcome. World-wide, because I love and appreciate all my readers and I know you are everywhere.

ETA: LET ME KNOW IF YOU ARE USA or INT’L, please (some of the early comments haven’t see this ETA–let me know if you see this later, thanks!)

3. Contest open from 15 April to 25 April, midnight USA Pacific Time (using that instead of Hawaii time because I don’t stay up until midnight)

As of April 20 you can also bid on an ARC at Con or Bust, a fundraiser to help fans of color attend sff conventions.

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.

Chapter Eight:The Cold War Begins?

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Published on April 15, 2015 13:27

Remembering Japan: 1945 – 1946: Chapter Eight:

From October 1945 to June 1946 my father, a Navy signalman, was stationed in Japan at Toriga-saki by the town of Kamoi, at the entrance to Tokyo Bay. He was then nineteen years old, a young Danish-American man from rural Oregon. The experience made a profound impression on him and he spoke of it often.

In Chapter Eight, an unusual ship encounter at the harbor entrance, and a flaming redhead to which the young sailors respond in completely predictable fashion.

Chapter Seven: The Toriga Saki Fleet

Chapter Six: General Douglas MacArthur

Chapter Five: Japanese Signalmen

Chapter Four: Work and Play

Chapter Three: Kamoi

Chapter Two: Harbor Entrance Control Post Toriga Saki, Tokyo Bay

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.

Chapter Five: Japanese Signalmen

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Published on April 03, 2015 02:08

Remembering Japan: 1945 – 1946: Chapter Five: Japanese Signalmen

From October 1945 to June 1946 my father, a Navy signalman, was stationed in Japan at Toriga-saki by the town of Kamoi, at the entrance to Tokyo Bay. He was then nineteen years old, a young Danish-American man from rural Oregon. The experience made a profound impression on him and he spoke of it often.

In Chapter Five, he talks about the Japanese signalmen he served with at Toriga-Saki.

Chapter Four: Work and Play

Chapter Three: Kamoi

Chapter Two: Harbor Entrance Control Post Toriga Saki, Tokyo Bay

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.

Chapter Four: Work and Play

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Published on March 13, 2015 11:37

Remembering Japan: 1945 – 1946: Chapter Four: Work & Play

From October 1945 to June 1946 my father, a Navy signalman, was stationed in Japan at Toriga-saki by the town of Kamoi, at the entrance to Tokyo Bay. He was then nineteen years old, a young Danish-American man from rural Oregon. The experience made a profound impression on him and he spoke of it often.

In Chapter Four, he answers the question “what did we do?” (in our spare time).

Chapter Three: Kamoi

Chapter Two: Harbor Entrance Control Post Toriga Saki, Tokyo Bay

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.

Chapter Two: Harbor Entrance Control Post Toriga Saki, Tokyo Bay

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Published on March 06, 2015 13:33

Remembering Japan 1945 – 1946: Chapter Two

From October 1945 to June 1946 my father, a Navy signalman, was stationed in Japan at Toriga-saki by the town of Kamoi, at the entrance to Tokyo Bay. He was then nineteen years old, a young Danish-American man from rural Oregon. The experience made a profound impression on him and he spoke of it often.

In Chapter Two: Harbor Entrance Control Post Toriga Saki, Tokyo Bay, he arrives at and describes the signal station where he spent nine months. It includes Dad’s famous story about how he and the signal crew there proved they were the best signalmen in the Navy.

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.

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Published on February 20, 2015 05:56

Writing Is Never A Waste of Time

Recently I got email from someone I know who asked me for advice. The email was longer than the excerpt below but I’ll snip to encapsulate:

“how do you write when you’re faced with the very likely possibility that it’s likely all for nothing unless you trip into some luck somewhere? I have no clue how other writers get past this to create stuff, when I’ve pretty much lived a creative life that said if you don’t have something worthwhile that makes an impact on someone besides you at the end of whatever you do, it’s wasted time.”

First of all, if writing gives you pleasure it is NEVER wasted time. NEVER.

I can pretty much recite the utilitarian argument because we see it so much: if you don’t get paid for it, if no one else thinks it is worth money, if you don’t sell X amount or receive Y number of positive reviews, then “you” don’t count. This view does pervade much of our money and success driven culture, and in the 24/7 social media culture where people can interact all the time and where interaction and sharing becomes part of the process, it can seem that writing is inextricably linked to the idea that it only matters if others want it or pay for it or talk about it in the right way.

I’ll say it again:

If writing gives you pleasure it is NEVER wasted time.

I started writing as a teen. Publishing was so distant from me that I only vaguely dreamed of publishing. I was writing for myself and no one else. I’m old fashioned enough that I tend to think teachers having their students “publish” their books in the classroom is a mistake because it makes people think that only publication makes the writing legitimate. This isn’t helped by the current crop of “hot new young writing star” publicity, as if you aren’t published by 25 then you are therefore already a failure. It isn’t helped by people trying to score points in internet debates by saying Writer X has more Amazon or goodreads reviews and thus must be taken more seriously than Writer Y who only has fewer. It isn’t helped by people trying to create hierarchy by claiming that only award and review notice matters, not “mere” popularity. Taken in terms of the act of writing as writing, those are secondary issues in terms of “legitimacy.”

What makes the writing legitimate is the way it makes you feel inside, the spark of excitement as a scene becomes clear, as vivid words and images emerge that you didn’t expect, as characters surprise you.

It’s weird because before I was published I knew nothing about the science fiction and fantasy scene. I had no interaction with anyone about my writing except my high school English teacher and a couple of university writing teachers. The former was great and hugely influential because he encouraged me both in my love of writing and by recommending classics to read that would bring breadth into my imaginative vista. The latter were basically a waste of time because they universally scorned genre, given this was long before genre became cool and “serious,” and kept telling me I ought to write “real fiction” instead of sff.

After college I tried to sell my first finished novel. It never did sell; it was really very bad, and it is PERFECTLY OKAY that it wasn’t very good because I loved writing it at the time I wrote it. I was totally into it.

Everything we write should make us happy as writers in that the writing of it can fulfill something inside us. Everything we write also makes us better writers (if we pay attention).

After failing to sell that book I wrote three more novels. I got an agent by sending out letters and getting rejections until I found one willing to take me on. I got published. Only then did I learn about sff conventions. I knew nothing about fandom or fanfiction.

Now I see that this ignorance has helped me in specific ways.

I always at root write for myself. When I struggle with my writing it is always because I’m worrying not about the book itself but about reception, about outside things. Again, it was easier in the ancient days to just write in the privacy of my own head, and it’s much harder now that I can anticipate that people will be reading and reacting to the words I’m setting down.

Back then I wrote solely to please myself. I wrote stories I wanted to read.

I would ask writers two questions:

1) Why are you writing? What is your goal?

2) Does the story you are writing right now make you happy in the sense that it gives you pleasure and satisfaction as you see it come into being? Leaving aside ALL OTHER FACTORS, just on your own behalf — does it make you smile creatively? Do you think “Whoo! I did that! Ooo! I could do this other thing here!”

I’m not saying it is easy to block out all the other competing goals and voices and complications, but that

“Oooo! Whoo!”

is for me the central worthwhile thing about writing.

I care about the other stuff too, of course, and it would be disingenuous to pretend otherwise. A lot of my self identity is tied up now with being a publishing writer, and I can’t pretend that publishing, paying my mortgage, reader reaction, reviews, interaction with other writers, reading, and all the elements tied into having a writing career aren’t central to my sense of who I am. It isn’t really possible to Franzen-like block out all the influences that pour down over us, and I don’t want to pretend it is.

But that’s not at root why I started writing and why I continue to write.

I write because, however hard it may be at any given moment, deep in my heart it delights me to writing fiction.

If you can find that place, keep pulling yourself back to that place when you stray, then write the story that you want to tell, and write it for yourself.

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.

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Published on February 16, 2015 06:13

Remembering Japan 1945-1946: Chapter One: The Sea Devil to Japan

From October 1945 to June 1946 my father, a Navy signalman, was stationed in Japan at Toriga-saki by the town of Kamoi, at the entrance to Tokyo Bay. He was then nineteen years old, a young Danish-American man from rural Oregon. The experience made a profound impression on him and he spoke of it often.

In Chapter One, The Sea Devil to Japan, he describes the voyage from the USA to Japan.

Our entire crew with a few support positions was sent to man the Harbor Entrance Control Post at the entrance to Tokyo Bay. We were commanded by a mid-western high school principal by the name of Harris. He must have felt right at home since we were all recent high school graduates. Our small group was assigned a hold in a troop ship named the Sea Devil. The troops assigned were all Navy but bits and pieces of various units and replacements. I seem to recall that there were two to three thousand men on the ship.

You can read Chapter One in its entirety here.

The Introduction can be read here.

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.